"Very poor service from doctor"

My family and I have used your practice for several years very happily and have always been delighted with the service and professionalism we have received. However when I attended your surgery today I was horrified with the service my son received and I wish to make a complaint.

Over the last few months my son has suffered from constant cold and coughs, he attended the doctor 2 weeks ago and was given antibiotics for his chest. After taking these for a week there was no real improvement and over the last week he has suffered from a bad cough. This cough has resulted in him vomiting numerous times and he has developed very bad diarrhoea over the last 5 days. The combination of vomiting and diarrhoea has led to weight loss and him waking in the night every night for the last week. Last night he was awake for 3 hours of which he cried for 2 hours with the pain in his stomach, because of this I was concerned and made an appointment to see a doctor.

When my son and I arrived at the doctors we were treated as usual very well by the reception staff however when we were taken into the doctor I was appalled by the service we received.

When describing the problem to the doctor, they constantly interrupted me to try to hurry me on, they didn’t listen to half of my concerns, clearly too busy rushing through the appointment. They then spent less than a minute examining my son only very briefly listening to his chest and checking his ears.

Having taken my son to be checked before I was appalled by the apparent lack of care or interest in this. My son and I were clearly distressed but the doctor's attitude seemed to us utterly lacking any care and was very brusque verging on rude.

Their only advice when I asked how long to expect the diarrhoea and weight loss to continue was to take him to the health visitor in January to keep an eye on his weight as that was more suitable than the doctor.

I have never encountered a doctor who seemed less interested in the welfare of a patient. While his illness might not be a concern to them, it is to myself and having taken the time to make an appointment to see a doctor I would not expect to be treated like a time waster.

The doctor gave me absolutely no useful advice detailing how to help my son and showed what seemed to be a complete lack of interest and concern in what I was saying, or in examining him.